Structure of a self-assembled hydrogen-bonded ‘living’ main chain liquid crystalline polymer

✍ Scribed by Chaobin He; Athene M. Donald; Anselm C. Griffin; Tom Waigh; Alan H. Windle

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 209 KB
• Volume: 36
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0887-6266
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0488(19980730)36:10<1617::aid-polb3>3.0.co;2-m

✦ Synopsis

A main chain hydrogen-bonded liquid crystalline polymer was formed by melt mixing two complementary components, A and B, which in their individual states do not exhibit liquid crystallinity. The structure of the polymer and the thermal stability of its mesophase were studied using synchrotron radiation SAXS/WAXS/DSC at Daresbury (UK) and by variable temperature Fourier transform infrared. The chain extension, or ''polymerization'' process, was accelerated at the point when the polymer formed a liquid crystalline phase upon cooling from the isotropic melt. The polymer has an aabb chain structure and forms a smectic layer with a length of the A-B repeating unit. The hydrogen-bonded main chain polymer studied here is a monotropic liquid crystal. Above 150ЊC, it exhibits kinetic stabilization of its monotropic smectic phase.